Machine Learning, Big Data, Deep Learning, Data Mining, Statistics, Decision & Risk Analysis, Probability, Fuzzy Logic FAQ

William Briggs, one of my favorite statisticians, has a big post up answering everything you didn't want to know about probability and related computer science fields:

Machine Learning, Big Data, Deep Learning, Data Mining, Statistics, Decision & Risk Analysis, Probability, Fuzzy Logic FAQ

What’s the difference between machine learning, deep learning, big data, statistics, decision & risk analysis, probability, fuzzy logic, and all the rest?

• None, except for terminology, specific goals, and culture. They are all branches of probability, which is to say the understanding and sometime quantification of uncertainty. Probability itself is an extension of logic.

So what’s the difference between probability and logic?

• Not much, except probability deals with uncertainty and logic with certainty. Machine learning, statistics, and all the rest are matters of uncertainty. A statement of logic is a list of premises and a conclusion, and either the conclusion follows validly and the conclusion is true, else it is false. A statement of probability is also a list of premises and a conclusion, though usually the conclusion does not follow with certainty.